Last month Relentless joined forces with iconic house and electronic record label, Defected for a brand partnership to last the ages.

For three weeks our No. 5 space on Denmark Street was transformed into a Defected pop up shop where anyone could come and get their hands on merchandise exclusive to Relentless, including vinyl records, T-shirts and accessories – and of course an ice cold can of Relentless.

As part of our DefectedxRelentless partnership, we gave the label free reign over No. 5 for a night of pure electronic, headed up by some of Defected’s most exciting talents. Dennis Ferrer, Franky Rizardo and Jacky all took over the decks throughout the evening to bring a taste of Ibiza to Soho.

The Relentless team caught up with one of the headline DJs, Jacky, in our No. 5 space to chat all things music.

Jacky’s sound is so much more than just straight house. Growing up in East Africa meant being surrounded by native music and gaining a knowledge of African drums, a knowledge he reckons helps him within his music to this day. He began playing the drums aged seven whilst living in Africa and he believes that’s what first got him into this whole music thing, saying that even now he starts every track with the drum beat.

With elements from a variety of genres, the Elrow artist can keep you chill or get you moving within minutes.

Check out our interview with Jacky above where he talks about his recent set at Parklife festival, getting to meet his idol Moodymann, the influence African drums have on his sound and the definition of underground.

Jacky also teases that he has a huge collaboration coming up with another artist, but he can’t say who it is. We’ve had a think and put together a list of people we’d like to see Jacky join forces with.

Moodymann

We already know that Jacky is a massive fan of the Detroit based producer and DJ. Moodymann specialises in Detroit techno and house music and has dropped eleven studio albums over his 20 year career. He also owns KDJ Records, so could we be seeing a KDJ and Defected partnership in the future?

Eats Everything

Bristol’s Eats Everything is one of the biggest in the electronic game right now thanks to his extensive career and musical offerings. He was the first ever resident DJ at XOYO, where he played every Saturday for three months. He and Jacky have shared the bill before at Manchester’s Warehouse Project. Is it possible the pair could have linked up then and decided to work on something together?

Kiddy Smile

Fellow Defected artist, Kiddy Smile’s sound is inspired by the “sleazy” sounds of 80s and 90s house music. The Parisian artist is at the forefront of LGBTQ house and his work alongside Beth Ditto and LCD Sound System has risen his profile. Could we be seeing a cross-Channel collaboration? They have that Defected connection so a link up isn’t totally off the cards.

Luke Hassan

Having featured on Youtube channel Soundscape – which is where mega producer Mura Masa got his big break – Luke Hassan is organically building a name for himself as one of the big up and coming artists of the scene. (You can also see him performing every night at our The Point stage at Boardmasters in August.)

Of course this is all just our wishful thinking. For now we’ll just have to sit on that one, but we’re excited to see what comes next for the artist.

Don’t forget, throughout the year whenever you buy a special DefectedxRelentless can you’ll be able to download a free track from Defected.